Jewelry studio is open by appointment by calling 707 964 2787. After graduating from the University of California in Berkeley, Teplow taught French at Saratoga High School before entering the Peace Corps. She was assigned to teach in Togo, West Africa. In her village of Lama Kara she became acquainted with African trade beads which were actually millefiori beads that had been brought from the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon of Italy. Her first necklace consisted of those glass beads.
Returning to California she accepted a job teaching at the Summerhill School on Road 409 in Caspar. That house was used in the movie, “Over Board.” She began to teach the dances she had learned in West Africa and formed a dance company named “Ivory”. For 10 years Teplow was the founder and director of the acclaimed Mendocino Dance Series bringing dance companies from around the world to Cotton Auditorium. After her years of producing, she was asked to be the agent for La Tania, the world-class Flamenco dancer. She later promoted the jazz singer Scotty Wright and booked jazz acts into the Ocean Club at the Hill House.
In the 1990s she began teaching all subjects at Coastal Adult School for the Fort Bragg Unified School District. Rhoda shows her jewelry at many Mendocino County Art Fairs and the Artists’ Collective of Elk, the Dolphin Gallery, and the Gualala Art Center. Her body of work incorporates her own porcelain beads, brass from the Ashanti tribe, recycled glass beads from the Krobo tribe in Ghana, and pendants from Katmandu, Nepal.

Members of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Patricia Ray-Franklin along with her children, Tim (11), Joshua (9), and Sarah (6), make regalia to be worn while dancing. Patricia uses her craft to revitalize the culture of her tribe. Taught beading by her brother, Timothy Ray, Patricia has taught her children to bead.
Among their many activities in the community the Franklins also dance, sing and play traditional instruments. Tim, Joshua and Sarah integrate their sense of rhythm, patterns and colors in their paintings. Patricia has been inspired by her late Aunt Bonnie Elliott, who she watched as a young girl weave baskets and make regalia.
This is a unique opportunity to see dynamic art made by a family that is learning and sustaining the original cultures of Mendocino and Lake counties.